In my Heroic instance runs I’m always curious about how well I’m doing. It’s a natural tendancy to want to pull my weight, so I run Recount and make sure I’m paying enough attention, both while hammering at mobs, as well as beforehand where I look into ability rotations and theorycraft, and then also ensure I’m buffed enough, to consider myself as useful to the group. And I’m usually always on the top of the Damage Done chart. And I’m a cheap bastard so I don’t pull aggro and have repair bills.

But every once in a while there’s somebody along who just knocks me down and mops the floor with me when it comes to Damage Done. A Paladin in PvP gear, with PvP gems, and PvP enchants, using Seal of Command (I’ve got to get my Paladin on that). She beat me, though her average iLevel was only a little higher than mine. And a Warrior last night. Undead, so you can’t really tell how good the gear is on them by sight, but higher iLevel. He tore into the first pack in Drak’Tharon (the troll place) and topped 6k DPS. I’m running along in 2nd place with my 2-mob AoE Blood Spec.

Was he really outperforming me? Have I again reached my plateau? No. Because in addition to Recount I’m also running GearScore. And together they tell me how well I did compared to others based on my output AND my gear level, against other people, what they did with what they were geared with. I actually still beat the Warrior, performance wise. So that’s good to know. I’d be right there with him if I were in his gear.

Output = skill/spec/build & gear.

Recount + GearScore will show your performance and normalize it for your gear. If you’re still down in the ranks it could be time to adjust your talents, spec, and/or your use of abilities.